


I Trust Him

by Sohotthateveryonedied



Series: Batfamily Bingo [16]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Cigarettes, Gen, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jim Gordon and the Robins, POV Jim Gordon, Past Character Death, Smoking, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sohotthateveryonedied/pseuds/Sohotthateveryonedied
Summary: Unlike the others who are so eager to please that they practically beam when he gives them a hello, Jim hasn’t met this one face to face yet. As far as he knows, Hood is on the side of the heroes these days, but just barely. It’s been a confusing couple of years. There’s a duffle bag with eight heads stuffed into it that he just can’t sweep under the rug.
Relationships: Jim Gordon & Jason Todd
Series: Batfamily Bingo [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1792990
Comments: 19
Kudos: 460





	I Trust Him

**Author's Note:**

> Anon said: “For the bingo card can you do red hood!Jason with comm. Gordon :)”

Jim checks his watch. The signal has been on for ten minutes now, its trademark bat silhouette shining against the backdrop of Gotham’s smog and pollution like a holy beacon. He’s running late tonight.   
  
Jim pulls his jacket tighter around himself and it takes everything he has not to shiver as his breaths turn to mist in front of his mustache. If Batman got a paycheck, Jim would dock him a hundred bucks for making him wait in the cold like this. He should have brought a heavier jacket.   
  
“Need a smoke?” he hears, which just about gives him a goddamn heart attack. He wheels around, hand flying instinctively to his gun holster, only to find the Red Hood leaning against the door to the roof. And he thought the  _ Bat  _ was good at sneaking up on him. Hood’s holding out a pack of cigarettes.   
  
Unlike the others who are so eager to please that they practically beam when he gives them a hello, Jim hasn’t met this one face to face yet. As far as he knows, Hood is on the side of the heroes these days, but just barely. It’s been a confusing couple of years. There’s a duffle bag with eight heads stuffed into it that he just can’t sweep under the rug.   
  
“No thanks,” he says after a moment, pulling his hand back from his firearm. “I’m trying to cut back.”   
  
Hood tucks the cigs into his jacket pocket. “Good choice. These things’ll kill you.” Then he snickers, like he’s sharing an inside joke with himself. “So where’s the fire?”   
  
Is...Is this it? Batman really sent the  _ Red Hood _ ahead instead of meeting Gordon himself? Jim hopes he’s not mad at him; he’s been waiting three days to show Batman the pictures he took of his latest kitchen remodel. “Uh. There have been rumors of a robbery happening tonight at the Gotham Museum of Antiquities. A team job, at least four men. I don’t know what they’re looking for, but my intel is pretty sure the target is in the art exhibit.”   
  
Hood nods. “Gotcha. I’ll head over there.”   
  
Is it weird that Jim is so accustomed to the Bat vanishing on him that he doesn’t entirely know how to end a conversation? Not this kind, anyway. Jim rubs his hands together, trying to coax warmth back into the frozen appendages. “If you don’t mind me asking, where is he? Batman, I mean.”   
  
“Had a date. I was unlucky enough to be serving backup tonight.”   
  
“Batman dates?”    
  
“I know, right?” Another snicker. It’s so creepy hearing him laugh from inside the helmet, echoing faintly like a threat. “I keep telling the others how fucking weird it is but they just get all ‘it’s about time he settled down’ and ‘they’re both old so who cares’ and ‘so what if she’s a criminal, she makes good sangrias’. Fuckin’ kissups.”    
  
Jim doesn’t know what surprises him more: that the Batman and Catwoman rumors are true, or that Hood is friendly with the other bats. Since he first started showing up in Gotham, the Hood has always been a wild card. Only kills the worst of the worst, but in such brutal ways that he can’t be trusted not to escalate. And yet, he’s been spotted on multiple occasions giving food to the homeless kids in Crime Alley and escorting the working girls home at night. Then he goes and reveals that not only is he on friendly terms with Batman, but that he’s practically one of the family now? If Jim had a death sentence, he’d ask if Hood’s doing this all just to torment him.   
  
“So when’s the robbery supposed to go down?” Hood asks. “I’m a busy guy so I gotta arrange my manicure appointments accordingly.” Jim is pretty sure that’s a joke. Then again, who knows? Jim makes a point of never missing his monthly spa days. His cuticles are grateful for it.   
  
“Sometime between eleven and two. I already have some of my men watching the place, but these guys have nabbed priceless objects from right under security guards’ noses.”   
  
“Got it,” Hood says. “Do the bat thing. And for your sake, I promise to stick with rubber bullets this time.” Thank the lord. Jim isn’t in the mood for the extra paperwork any deaths would entail. Hood pushes off the door and heads for the edge of the rooftop, taking out a grapple gun. “Now get back inside, commish. You look fucking freezing.”   
  
Hood raises his arm to shoot off a line, but Jim stops him. “Wait. Can I ask...is it true?”   
  
“Is what true?”   
  
“That you’re him. The one he lost.”   
  
Hood turns to face him and crosses his arms. “Does it matter?”   
  
“To me? I like to think so. It near broke my heart when the kid stopped showing up.” Understatement. When Batman lost his second one, Jim didn’t see the big guy for weeks. The best he got were glimpses in newspaper articles, detailing the Bat’s new form of violence as if the world had personally wronged him. He’d truly gone off the deep end, and Jim knew in his gut that it wasn’t just vengeance for himself.   
  
Then, when Jim was sure there was nothing to be done, a new one showed up. The third kid. He wasn’t like his predecessor, who was the brightest firecracker Jim had ever met. He liked chocolate bars and doing cartwheels along the roof’s edge while the adults talked, chiming in with a quip every once in a while.    
  
Sometimes Jim would make a trip to the vending machine right before their meetings and buy the kid a Snickers bar, just to see him light up. Robin would repay him by sneaking into his office and planting a bag of Swedish Fish somewhere he knew he’d find it. It became a game for the two of them.   
  
“He died,” Hood says. Jim can’t see his face, but he imagines a scowl hiding beneath the helmet. Just like his mentor.   
  
“And now?”   
  
A shrug. “He got better.”   
  
Jim shoves his hands into his pockets. “Well, if you happen to see him, give him my best. I’ve missed him. He’s a good kid.”   
  
_ “Was _ a good kid, you mean. People change.”   
  
“Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever the case, he was always my favorite one.”   
  
Hood’s expression doesn’t change because...well, it’s a hood. But Jim likes to think that he’s smiling under there. “I should go.”   
  
Jim nods. “Good luck. And go easy on my guys, will you? It’s not easy getting them to trust a gun-wielding maniac. No offense.”   
  
This time when Hood snickers, it’s not as threatening as it was before. “None taken. But what about you? Do  _ you _ trust a gun-wielding maniac?”   
  
Now there’s a complicated question. After a moment, Jim settles on, “I can’t say that I agree with everything you do. And as far as the GCPD is concerned, you’re on real thin ice.” Hood nods, like he expected that much. “But that kid who used to hide candy in my office? I trust him.”   
  
Red Hood raises his grapple again and gives a quick two-fingered salute. “Cool. See ya, Gordon.” And then he’s gone, leaping off into the shadows.   
  
Even though there’s no one left to see, Jim smiles and salutes back. “See you, kiddo.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Feel free to mosey on down to my Tumblr!](http://sohotthateveryonedied.tumblr.com/)


End file.
